The women have spoken. They want pads.

We’re about to have an honest conversation menstruation. You’re going to learn about what it’s like when ‘aunty flow’ comes to visit women and girls in Sierra Leone. I know, it’s not a ‘common’ conversation, but I promise you – it’s an important one.

You might be wondering why we’re having a conversation about menstruation in the first place. Well, One Girl is currently working on LaunchPad – a social enterprise that provides low cost, eco-friendly sanitary pads to women and girls in Sierra Leone.

Ready? Okay.. off we go.

A big smile after purchasing a trial pack of sanitary pads.

When we first arrived in Sierra Leone, Jackie (our business development manager), went to have a chat with a nurse from Marie Stopes International. Marie Stopes are a sexual and reproductive health organisation – they work with women every day, so they know all the ins and outs of menstruation.

As it turns out, a majority of women in Sierra Leone don’t have a hygienic way to manage their period. Some women will wear 5 pairs of underwear, others will use sponges (yes the kitchen kind), and most will use old cloth which they call “pieces”.

All of these methods are incredibly unhygienic – and in some cases, extremely painful.

The “pieces” that the women use are made from rough material. Many women will walk for up to 10 – 15km per day to collect water or to work on their farms. Because of the “pieces” they end up with rashes, bruising and sores on the inside of their thighs (Ouch!).

The “pieces” also need to be washed on a daily basis. This takes a lot of time AND money. Women will spend a small fortune in soap when they’re menstruating. Because they can’t hang their “pieces” out to dry in public – they are usually hidden in a damp corner of the house. The “pieces” become a breeding ground for bacteria, disease and other nasties.

It’s bad enough getting your period in Australia where we have an endless supply of sanitary pads and tampons. Can you even BEGIN to imagine what it would be like in 30+ degree heat, with NO pads, NO tampons and having to resort to a material that consistently tears up your skin? Argh!

After learning more from the nurse at Marie Stopes, we decided it was time to start pitching LaunchPad to our targeted communities. We gathered a group of women from each of the communities and had a good chat about the issues that come with using “pieces”. We also showed them a sample sanitary pad. The response was very promising. All of the women said that they wanted sanitary pads, AND that they’d be willing to pay for them.

“So put your money where your mouth is”, we said. Well, not really. Instead of saying that, we started a trial program.

In order to participate in our trial program, each woman would have to purchase a packet of sanitary pads for anywhere between 47 – 69 cents per packet. We were hoping that at least 30 women would agree to participate in the trial. We weren’t sure how the women would respond, because all of the stats on Sierra Leone say that the average income is around $1.25 per day. When you think about it, 69 cents is a fairly large chunk a woman’s daily income.

Despite our reservations – the reaction we got was WAY BEYOND what we expected. Instead of having 30 women sign up for our trial – we had 147 WOMEN say they’d participate – yes, even though they had to PAY for the privilege! We had to cap the trial at 147 women (otherwise we’d blow our budget).

Our little trial quickly transitioned into a slightly larger trial. Jackie and I headed off to the wholesalers in Freetown and purchased 5 cartons of sanitary pads. We spent a couple of afternoons repacking the pads into 8 packs and we rebranded them so the LaunchPad and One Girl logo were visible.

It’s was a very ‘homemade’ job – but it worked!

And now for the exciting part.. *drum roll please*

We completed our trial yesterday and we sold over 1000 sanitary pads to 147 women! In each community we ran a short sensitisation workshop where we discussed the advantages of using pads over “pieces”. We all had a good laugh when Ena (our country director) demonstrated how to use a pad with a sexy pair of red undies pulled up over her jeans.

Laughing all round when Ena pulled up her underpants over her jeans. See! Pads are fun too!

In one month, our Sierra Leone team will be heading back to the communities to gather their feedback. We need to know what worked, what didn’t, what they liked, what they didn’t like.. etc. etc.

It’s still early days yet, but we’re VERY excited. We’re still astounded at the positive response LaunchPad has received. We’re looking forward to finding out what the women thought of their sanitary pad experience.

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